A light source for traffic signals or electronic traffic signs is recently being replaced from incandescent lamps or the like to light emitting diodes (LEDs).
LEDs have a faster blinking response speed than incandescent lamps. Thus, in one example, an LED-based traffic signal or traffic sign captured by an onboard camera or the like that is mounted on an automobile or the like may occur flicker, and so the traffic signal or traffic sign may be captured while being turned off.
In a captured image captured by an onboard camera, a traffic signal or traffic sign projected in a turned-off state may cause acceptability as evidence in the event of an accident to be limited in a case where the onboard camera is used as, in one example, a dash cam.
In addition, in a captured image captured by an onboard camera, a traffic signal or traffic sign projected in a turned-off state may cause troubles in drive control including stopping of an automobile in a case where the captured image captured by the onboard camera is used for, in one example, automatic driving of an automobile.
Thus, a method of image capture is developed in which the image capture is performed, in a case where an object having a blinking light source such as traffic signals is used as an image capture target, during the exposure time exceeding a turn-off period in which the blinking light source is turned off (see, e.g., Patent Literature 1).
Further, a method is developed in which the image capture is performed a plurality of times during the period of the frame rate of the output image at the frame rate exceeding a frame rate of an output image to be output that is captured by the onboard camera (e.g., Patent Literature 2). Then, among the plurality of captured images obtained by the image capture performed a plurality of times, one captured image is randomly selected as the output image.